This area has gone by many names, but since 1839 it has been called Donggwang Village (동광리). At the time of the April 3 Incident it consisted of five or so smaller villages: Mudeungiwat (무등이왓), Josugwae (조수), Sajangbat (사장), Ganjangri (간장리), and Sambatguseok (삼밧석). In total there were about 200+ households in this farming village.

Things started on August 8, 1947. Local administrators came to Donggwang-ri in order to deal with the delivery of grains from the village, however it ended with several of the young people in the village getting assaulted. Those young people had opposed USAMGIK's grain collection policy, and in the end three of them were arrested and sentenced to prison time. Because of this incident, Donggwang-ri became increasingly in the eye of the police who would make frequent random visits to the village. In order to avoid the police and any potential beatings or arrests, the young people in Donggwang-ri either left for the mainland, Japan, or would hide in the mountains and caves around Donggwang-ri.

On November 15, 1948 suppression forces came to Donggwang-ri and assembled everyone in Mudeungiwat. At that time the order to leave the village had not been properly transmitted to the residents there, so most of them were still in the village. After addressing the residents, the suppression forces executed over 10 of them and began to burn down the village.

The remaining residents fled into the areas around Donggwang-ri. However, within a few weeks suppression forces moved out to find them. On December 11, suppression forces found and executed 20 or so residents they found near the village. The next day 10 or so residents - mainly women, children, and elderly - came to collect the corpses of those executed, however the suppression forces had been waiting for them and they too were executed.

References

Jeju 4.3 Archives - "무등이왓" (readable here in Korean)